1. Advocacy and Progressive National Legislation: StreetVendors in India
2. Market Traders and Legal Victories in Warwick Junction, Durban, South Africa
3. Legal Change for the Adoption of an Inclusive Recycling Model in Bogotá, Colombia
4. Social Mobilization and a New Legal Framework for Inclusion of Informal Recyclers in Solid Waste Management in Brazil
5. Global Standard Setting and Advocacy for Domestic Workers

Dr Debra Roberts of eThekwini Municipality, Durban, South Africa, gives the 2016 Barbara Ward Lecture. She called for more to be done to join the dots between the 'New Urban Agenda', being prepared for Habitat III, and the realities of implementation at the local level.

This research seeks to explore the relationship between informality and inclusive growth in sub-Saharan Africa, with a particular focus on South Africa. Despite relatively high growth rates, improvements in poverty and inequality have been constrained in many developing countries over the last decade, suggesting that economic growth has not been inclusive. In part, this relates to low levels of participation in the formal economy as well as high incidence of informality and unemployment in these countries. This research seeks to explore the relationship between informality and inclusive growth in sub-Saharan Africa, with a particular focus on South Africa. South Africans typically hold one of two opposing views on the informal sector. The first is that informality should be encouraged as an under-utilised source of new employment; the second is that it should be discouraged as an inferior source of employment. The central research question is therefore: “Do informal labour markets promote or constrain inclusive growth?” In order to examine the hypotheses, we use three different methodologies. Firstly, we undertake a regional evidence synthesis examining literature and case studies from the sub-Saharan Africa region. Secondly, we expand on the South African case study and examine the nature of transitions within the labour market. Thirdly, we examine to what extent income shocks may impact the likelihood of engagement within the informal sector.

This brief explores the relationship between informal employment and inclusive growth in sub-Saharan Africa, focused on the case of South Africa, with recommendations on how to address different types of informality. Informality in the labour market is often seen as both a hindrance and a help to inclusive growth. On the one hand, low pay and less benefits – which characterise informal markets – may exacerbate poverty and inequality concerns. On the other hand, it is far better than the alternative: unemployment. This brief explores the relationship between informal employment and inclusive growth in sub-Saharan Africa, with a specific focus on South Africa. We find clear benefits of informality for inclusive growth, including absorption of vulnerable groups into employment and the flexibility of the informal sector during and after economic downturns. Informal employment is not a magic bullet though; with issues such as lower pay, less benefits and job insecurity among the most problematic. We find policy measures aimed at reducing informality work best when they relax the external and internal constraints facing informal firms. Policy measures that aim to reduce informality by making it costly to be informal can unintentionally increase unemployment by pushing firms out of the market, which constrains inclusive growth. For this reason it is recommended that policy makers aim to support rather than to penalise informal enterprises.

This resource guide provides practical guidance for designing, implementing and evaluating decentralisation reforms and local government practices to ensure they are as effective as possible. It also synthesises and presents current debates on the impact of decentralisation and local government on poverty reduction, service delivery and conflict as well as providing links to cutting-edge research and recent case studies.